WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY SICILIA News Journal Update - (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria, Nov. 23: The missed redemption (15) - Independence and the trap of Autonomy (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

With the "liberation" of Sicily by the Anglo-Americans (July 1943), a
great movement of people was set in motion who no longer wanted war and
misery, but peace, work, land. As we have seen, different organizations
tried to insert themselves into this irrepressible need for freedom and
justice, which broke out in the towns and districts with riots,
protests, strikes, attacks, revolts: on the one hand the left -
communists and socialists, chambers of work, anarchists -, and the
Catholics, on the other the separatist archipelago which had found a
synthesis in the Movement for the Independence of Sicily (MIS) (1) whose
leader Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile, was an ambiguous figure but of a
certain prestige. On the sidelines, the neo-fascist groups were
reorganizing themselves in view of a clandestine "resistance", soon
absorbed by the plans of the US Intelligence and used in an
anti-communist function.

Within the MIS, social-communist and libertarian minority sectors
coexisted (from Antonio Varvaro to Anselmo Crisafulli, from Antonio
Canepa to the "Germinal" area of Nino Pino Balotta (2)), with liberal,
republican, monarchist forces (the Duke of Carcaci, the Prince Alliata,
Baron Cammarata) and Catholics. In the late autumn of '44, at the first
congress in Taormina, it was decided, not without disagreement, to adopt
the practice of armed struggle to counter the strong repression of the
army against the Movement and the Sicilian people. The Volunteer Army
for the Independence of Sicily (EVIS) was born, headed by Prof. Canepa,
an intellectual with revolutionary and libertarian positions (3);
formation which worried the government quite a bit, especially since in
the meantime the "We are not leaving" riots broke out on the island,
making the situation explosive.

The role of the MIS in the riots was limited and contradictory, however
in that incandescent climate its popularity increased and gave the idea
of an imminent possible separatist fracture, which led the government to
take drastic decisions, both in the field of military response than the
institutional one.

On 17 June 1945 near Randazzo, in a firefight with the carabinieri,
Canepa and two militants, Rosano and Lo Giudice, were killed. The
decapitation of the armed group was followed by the nomination of
Concetto Gallo and the subsequent enlistment of Giuliano and his band,
the latter with the rank of colonel (4). Meanwhile, many things had
changed, and the mafia, which had openly supported the MIS, began to
negotiate with the Services and moderate parties such as the DC, a
change of front, weakening separatism in the areas of greatest influence
(5). The infiltrations and the active role of the military and secret
services transformed the Giuliano-EVIS gang into a weapon against the
left-wing parties and unions, implementing a strategy of tension that
will sow countless deaths on the island; the Portella delle Ginestre
massacre of 1 May 1947 can be considered the first state massacre, due
to the now more than clear role of characters and strategies
attributable to the Italian and American armed forces and services.

As the institutional solution, also supported by the "fathers" of the
Constituent Assembly, it had to serve to definitively clip the wings of
independence, marginalizing it from Sicilian political life; therefore
it could not fail to be based, in this phase, on an autonomist
implementation that would have placed Sicily and the Italian State
almost on the same level in the definition of their institutional
relations. If the future structure of the State had been of a federalist
type (the debate on the Constituent Assembly was still ongoing),
autonomous (but not independent) Sicily could have had some chances
given the actual opportunities that the Statute of Autonomy, launched on
15 May 1946 (6), predicted. The choice of a centralized state divided by
regions (still pure administrative expressions) ended up sterilizing the
Statute and making it a mere instrument for neutralizing the aspirations
for self-determination of a large part of the Sicilian people.

The Statute was born before the Constitution and will become an integral
part of it.

Article 14 defines the exclusive legislation of the Sicilian Region
regarding agriculture and forests, land reclamation, civic uses,
industry and commerce, agricultural and industrial production and
commercial activities, urban planning, public works (except large works
of national interest), mines , quarries, peat bogs and salt marshes,
public waters, fishing and hunting, public charities and charitable
works, tourism, landscape protection, conservation of antiquities, local
authority regime, legal and economic status of employees and officials
of the region, primary education, museums, libraries, academies,
expropriation for public use. For the art.
5 the organization of Local Authorities is based on the Region, on the
Municipalities and on the Free Municipal Consortia. The art. 17
specifies that "within the limits of general interests", the Assembly
can enact laws on communication and transport, hygiene and public
health, health care, middle and university education, regulation of
credit, insurance and savings, social legislation, annona , assumption
of public services, provided that they involve a prevailing regional
interest. The art. 21 establishes that the President of the Region
participates "with the rank of minister" in the Council of Ministers,
with a deliberative vote in matters that concern the Region. For the
art. 22 the Region can participate with one of its representatives in
the formation of the State railway tariffs and in the establishment and
regulation of national communication and land, maritime and air
transport services of its interest. The art. 23 states that the central
judicial bodies will have respective sections in Sicily for affairs
concerning the region. The art. 24 establishes a High Court in Rome with
the task of judging the constitutionality of the laws of the State with
respect to the Statute and for the purposes of their effectiveness in
the regional territory; its president can challenge state laws and
regulations. For the art. 31 the police depends on the regional
government. The art. 32 assigns state property and water assets to the
Region. Art. 37: companies based outside Sicily but active on the island
pay the relevant taxes to the Region. Art. 38: the State must pay
annually, by way of "national solidarity", a sum to be used in the
execution of public works, a sort of compensation for the income
disparities between Sicily and the average of the other regions. The
art. 40 establishes a clearing house at the Banco di Sicilia with the
aim of allocating foreign currencies from Sicilian exports, remittances
from emigrants, tourism and the revenue from the rental of ships
registered in the Sicilian compartments to the needs of the region. The
art. 41 gives power to the Regional Government to issue internal loans.

As can be seen, these regulations granted (and still grant) many margins
of initiative to the regional institution which, knowing how to take
advantage of them, could have enjoyed ample economic, political and
legal opportunities which would have benefited the condition of the
population. But in the space of just a few years, the insidious
objective of the institutional solution was achieved: the independence
and autonomist forces recycled themselves in the various national
parties, the DC in the lead, concerned only with safeguarding their own
privileges and those of the hegemonic classes, including the mafia. The
Statute instrument became increasingly functional for this purpose, and
for the rest, a piece of paper not applied in its fundamental
prerogatives, such as the aforementioned art. 37, or art. 38 according
to which the Italian State owes Sicily hundreds of billions of euros.
The High Court referred to in art. 24, the one that best defined the
treaty and federalist nature of the Statute, was effectively repealed
and made illegitimate, replaced by the Constitutional Court. The
Clearing House died long before the Banco di Sicilia died. While many
points still remain unapplied but applicable, the substance of the
Statute has been emptied, with the complicity of the Sicilian political
class. The redemption for which the people once again fought has been
crushed by military violence and political cunning. Sicily has been
normalized. But it won't last long.

Pippo Gurrieri

15 - continue

Note

For an inside knowledge of the MIS you can see: Attilio Castrogiovanni,
Duke of Carcaci, The Movement for the Independence of Sicily, Flaccovio,
Palermo 1977; Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile, The Sicilian Independence
Movement, Sicilian Books, Palermo 1966. For the historical analysis:
Carmelo Cimino, An investigation into Sicilian separatism, Sicilian
Gramsci Institute, Palermo 1988; Giuseppe Carlo Marino, History of
Sicilian separatism, Editori Riuniti, Rome 1979

On Pino see: Giuseppe Alibrandi, Nino Pino, the man and his time,
Pungitopo, Marina di Patti 1982 and Antonio Catalfamo, Nino Pino, the
"heroic furies", Life of a libertarian, Sicilia Punto L, Ragusa 1996

Totò Gliozzo, Antonio Canepa and the army for the independence of Sicily
- The EVIS in Cesarò and the Randazzo massacre (1944-1945), Boemi,
Catania 1998; Mario Di Mauro, The showdown of the partisan Canepa,
TerraeLiberazione, Catania 2019; Salvo Barbagallo, A failed revolution,
Bonanno, Catania 1974

Carlo Ruta, The Giuliano-Scelba duo, a mystery of the Republic?,
Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 1995; Carlo Ruta (edited), The Giuliano
affair, AccadeinSicilia, Ragusa 2013; Giuseppe Casarrubea, Secret
history of Sicily, From the allied landing to Portella della Ginestra,
Bompiani, Milan 2007;

Salvatore Lupo, The myth of the great conspiracy. The Americans, the
mafia and the landing in Sicily in 1943, Donzelli, Rome, 2023

Department of Cultural and Environmental Heritage and Public Education
of the Sicilian Region, Statute of the Sicilian Region, Palermo 1978.

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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